Item Info

Folio Number: front
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

?Our thanks to Dr. Margaret Bent of All Souls College, Oxford for the information on this leaf.

Philadelphia Free Library, Lewis T658 (olim Lewis 489b)

Incomplete parchment bifolio from the Credo section of a manuscript of English polyphonic music, probably from the 1420s. Each of the four pages presents, anonymously, part of a different Credo, which means that neither side of the bifolio was originally a centre gathering. Spacing suggests pages were ruled with 12 red staves (of which only the upper 7 survive), allowing each Credo to occupy a single opening, as in Old Hall (Lbl 57950). Two of the Credos have concordances with known compositions, supplying attributions: one to Dunstaple, the other to 'Anglicanus'.  (These were identified by Peter Wright. See now EECM 55, nos 16, 45, 46). The numbering of the folios (A as the wider leaf and B the smaller) is provisional, as it is not entirely clear which way the bifolio was originally folded. All four pieces are in full black notation with red coloration.

f. Ar  Anglicanus, Credo Alma redemptoris mater (= Curtis & Wathey, Credo 70: Tr92-1, 113v-114). Second cantus part, starting at Et in spiritum (telescoped text in both sources), with 2-stave indentation for initial E, not provided. In imperfect time, major prolation, changing to minor prolation at Et unam.

f. Av  Dunstaple, Credo, upper part  (= Curtis & Wathey, Credo 55, = Ao 15, 135v-138). Published in John Dunstable:  Complete Works, ed. Manfred F. Bukofzer; 2nd, rev. ed. Margaret Bent, Ian Bent and Brian Trowell. Musica Britannica, vol. 8. (London, 1970), no. 5. Text differently distributed. First section to facta sunt, in imperfect time, minor prolation. From Et incarnatus, the English source notates in imperfect time, minor prolation, from Qui propter, Aosta notates in perfect time minor prolation, in augmented values with Ø.  Identified by Peter Wright.

 f. Br  Credo, hitherto unidentified. Second cantus part, texted, in imperfect time, major prolation, with 2-stave indentation for initial P, not provided.

f. Bv  Credo, hitherto unidentified. Upper part, in imperfect time, major prolation. 

ShelfMark: Lewis T658